Spring 2027 Courses

Aftermath of the Holocaust | JST 3930 (25292)

Crosslist: EUH 3931 (24132)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing: 6,000 words requirement

T 3:00 PM – 4:55 PM  (Periods 8-9) and R 4:05 PM – 4:55 PM (Period 9)

Instructor: Natalia Aleksiun | Syllabus coming soon

What did it mean to rebuild a life after the Holocaust? This course examines the experiences of Jewish survivors in postwar Europe as they sought to recover their identities, rebuild families and communities, and create new lives in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It explores their social, legal, economic, religious, and cultural worlds in their countries of origin and in Displaced Persons (DP) camps. The course considers what survivors viewed as essential to regaining a sense of normalcy, the roles of homes, institutions, and rituals in rebuilding their lives, and the ways in which the Holocaust reshaped their choices about where and how to live. Through these questions, the course explores the challenges and possibilities of rebuilding Jewish lives after genocide in postwar Europe and beyond.

Hebrew Bible as Literature | JST 3930 (25295)

Crosslist: REL 3213 (25625), LIT 3374 (26226)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing 6,000 Words requirement

T 10:40 AM – 11:30 AM (Period 4) and R 10:40 AM – 12:35 PM (Periods 4-5)

Instructor: Robert Kawashima| Syllabus coming soon

This course will introduce students to the literary study of the Hebrew Bible within its ancient Near Eastern context. It contains some of the great literary works to come down to us from antiquity, on par with the Homeric epics. And biblical narrative constitutes the oldest prose literature that we know of at present. Our primary focus will be on a wide and varied reading of biblical narrative — along with a bit of poetry — but students will also be introduced to the scholarly study of the Bible from a literary perspective. More generally, this course will introduce students to the scholarly, interdisciplinary study of literature. That is, if the solutions and interpretations proposed will be specific to the Bible, the problems and ideas raised will have relevance for the study of literature in general.

Israel in French Cinema | JST 3930 (25300)

Crosslist: FRT 3520 (25494), ENG 4153 (26593)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing: 6,000 words requirement

MWF 12:50 PM – 1:40 PM  (Period 6)

Instructor: Gayle Zachmann | Syllabus coming soon

Moshé Mizrahi was the first Israeli director to win an Oscar. He did it in 1978 with a French film, Madame Rosa. It was one of three films he made in France. Six years earlier Claude Lanzmann’s 1972 documentary opus Pourquoi Israel (Israel, Why) moved from evocations of the Shoah onto a panorama of the fledgling Jewish state. The two films point to already ongoing exchange between Israeli and French cinemas, cinematic cultures, and culture makers.

This seminar-style course explores Franco-Israeli cultural relations and the evolving representations of Israel in French and francophone cinema(s). In the decades following the Holocaust and Israeli independence, along with memory of the Shoah, the cinematic figuration of Israel and its geopolitical and cultural relations with France underwent profound transformations. Organized thematically, the class historically contextualizes and analyzes French and Israeli films and co-productions. Students engage with films, targeted readings, and interviews with filmmakers, critics, archivists to understand the shifting aesthetic, social, political and commercial contexts with which the films engage.
Weekly module themes include : Israel and French Cinemas; National and Minor Cinemas; The Politics and Poetics of Loss and Memory; Visions of Israel; In the Shadow of France; Migrations and Memory; Exiles and Diasporas; Kibbutz Dreams; From the Shoah to Terror; Conflict in the 21st Century; Mossad Spies and their Others; Franco-Judaisms and Universalisms; Trials, Testimony, and the Nation(s).

Class assumes no prior knowledge and may count for FFS/LLC/ENG/JST requirements, the Certificate for European Jewish Studies and the Certificate in Israel Studies. Course and readings are in English.

Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Comparative Perspective | JST 3930 (20970)

Crosslist: INR 4931 (21504)

T 10:40 AM – 11:30 AM (Period 4) and R 10:40 AM – 12:35 PM (Periods 4-5)

Instructor: Artur-Or Honig | Syllabus

This course offers students the opportunity to think about this highly controversial conflict through analytical lens. The course will provide a comprehensive analysis of the various interactions that Israel had with the Palestinians through a comparison to other similar intra-state conflicts. It will cover the media coverage, the economic and diplomatic interactions, migration trends, and deeper factors that shaped the trajectory of the conflict. Students will try to explain variation in the behavior of different kinds of actors between different conflicts and will also critically examine the usefulness of a variety of models drawn from political science, economics, and sociology.

Israeli Security Policies in Comparative Perspective | JST 3930 (20971)

Crosslist: INR 4931 (21505)

T 12:50 PM – 1:40 PM (Period 6) and R 11:45 AM – 1:40 PM (Periods 5-6)

Instructor: Artur-Or Honig | Syllabus

This course introduces students to the dilemmas facing Israeli decisionmakers at various levels when trying to formulate security policies. We will better understand how and why different security policies are adopted given different international and domestic constraints. During its very short history of seventy-six years, the small state of Israel has had to face a variety of serious security challenges, ranging from hostile nuclear and biological weapons programs to conventional warfare, insurgency and terrorism in their variety of forms. We will explore how Israel met these challenges, assess how effective these policy responses were, and determine to what extent the Israeli policy response differed, if at all, from that of other countries. We will also discuss what other countries, and especially the US, may learn from the Israeli experience and vice versa.

Jews of the Arab World in Documentary Films | JST 3930 (25298)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing: 6,000 words requirement

W 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM  (Periods 8-10)

Instructor: Yehoshua Ecker | Syllabus coming soon

Looking at a variety of documentaries, this course recovers multiple narratives of Jewish life in Arab countries, at crucial periods of change, throughout the 20th Century with flashbacks to the 19th. This is history telling through documentary film, which is in many ways history in the making. Larger and smaller narratives – national, regional, local, personal – are contested and negotiated, as new stories and trends are uncovered. For this period, more than any other, multiple different approaches can be taken and many voices can be heard, as we observe the editing room of historical narrative, the recording of new voices, and contemplate and craft narratives of our own. Award-winning documentaries, independent films, government productions, politically motivated documentary work, private and family documentary projects, are used to portray the fraught and complicated history of Jews in the rapidly changing environments of the modern Arab world.

Latin America, WWII, and the Holocaust | JST 3930 (22768)

Crosslist: LAH 3931 (22307), LAS 3930 (23264)

T 10:40 AM – 11:30 AM (Period 4) and R 10:40 AM – 12:35 PM (Periods 4-5)

Instructor: Raanan Rein | Syllabus coming soon

This course examines the role of Latin American countries during World War II, from Argentina’s neutrality to Brazil’s participation in the war. Through readings, primary sources, and films, we will explore Jewish immigration to Latin America during the years of the Third Reich, the German communities in the region, and the arrival of both Holocaust survivors and Nazi perpetrators after 1945. We will also examine memorials to the Shoah and Holocaust museums across Latin America, considering how the Holocaust has been remembered and represented in the region.

Old Testament in the New: Christian Gospels| JST 3930 (25296)

Crosslist: REL 3249 (25627), CLA 3930 (25096)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing 6,000 Words requirement

T 1:55 PM – 2:45 PM (Period 7) and R 1:55 PM – 3:50 PM (Periods 7-8)

Instructor: Robert Kawashima| Syllabus coming soon

The New Testament is in essence a Jewish text, or better, set of texts. It is thought that almost all of the New Testament writers were apocalyptic Jews who happened to identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah – “messiah” being a thoroughly Jewish idea. And all of the New Testament writers were clearly steeped in the Jewish scriptures – what we now know as the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. As a result, the New Testament abounds with quotations, allusions, and echoes of the “scriptures” of its authors.

In this course, we will focus primarily on the biblical allusions found in the New Testament narratives: namely, the four Gospels and Acts. Our approach will be literary. How does identifying and analyzing biblical allusions lead to a richer and more accurate interpretation of the New Testament narratives? More generally, students will come to recognize and understand better the Jewish background of the New Testament.

Passing: Black, White, and Jewish | JST 3930 (25299)

Crosslist: AFA 3930 (27582), LIT 4930 (22985)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing: 6,000 words requirement

T 3:00 PM – 4:55 PM (Periods 8-9) and R 4:05 PM – 4:55 PM (Period 9)

Instructor: Roy Holler | Syllabus coming soon

Aren’t we all passing? We change how we present ourselves depending on where we are, who we’re with, and what we want. We hide parts of ourselves, take on new identities, and sometimes try to be seen as someone we are not. But what happens when passing means changing one’s race, ethnicity, gender, or religion?

Following passing across literature, film, television, and legal cases, we begin with African Americans who passed as white at the turn of the twentieth century, when being discovered could have devastating consequences. We then turn to Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing and explore how passing has developed in contemporary culture. The second half of the course focuses on passing as a global strategy, with an emphasis on transnational Jewish identity, antisemitism, Jewish persecution, the Holocaust, Holocaust memory, exile and diaspora, and anti-Zionism. We consider Barbra Streisand’s Yentl, Dahn Ben-Amotz, a Holocaust survivor who erases his past, and Ghassan Kanafani’s Returning to Haifa, which explores Palestinian belonging.

Poetics of Justice: Law, Literature, and Film | JST 3930 (24115)

Crosslist: GET 3930 (14283), LIT 3400 (20050)

JST 3930 section counts towards Writing 6,000 Words requirement

T 1:55 PM – 2:45 PM (Period 7) and R 1:55 PM – 3:50 PM (Periods 7-8)

Instructor: Eric Kligerman | Syllabus coming soon

In his brief yet complex parable “Before the Law” Kafka describes how a man from the country searches for the law but is stopped outside the gates by a menacing guard, never to gain entrance to the law. What is the significance of this failure to grasp the law? How does Kafka’s perplexing tale shed light on questions pertaining to the interplay between justice, law and violence, and how do we as individuals encounter these conflicts within the social and political spaces in which we live? This interdisciplinary course sets out to explore these very questions and collisions by juxtaposing shifting modes of representations. By turning to the works of history (Thucydides), Religion (Book of Job), philosophy (Plato, Nietzsche and Arendt), literature (Sophocles, Dostoyevsky and Kafka) and film (Tarantino and the Coen brothers), our objective is to trace the narrative of justice through ancient Greece, the Enlightenment, the modern and postmodern periods. In particular, we will examine the realm of trials (both real and imaginary) to probe the relation between justice and ethics along with the various questions pertaining to law, guilt, responsibility, violence and punishment. How do writers critique the institutions of law and justice through works of literature and art? Our goal is to rethink these dynamic relationships by turning to the spaces of history, philosophy, political thought, literature and film.

Studying American Jews through Film and TV | JST 4936 (26048)

Crosslist: ANT 4930 (25949), ANG 6930 (25948)

T 11:45 AM – 1:40 PM (Periods 5-6) and R 12:50 PM – 1:40 PM (Period 6)

Instructor: Jack Kugelmass | Syllabus coming soon

Beginning Modern Hebrew 2  | HBR 1131 (18680)

M-F 11:45 AM – 12:35 PM (Period 5)

Instructor: Iris Cohen | Syllabus coming soon

Ready to start your Hebrew journey? Hebrew 1131 is an online, proficiency-based course for beginners (mid-high). Students focused on developing practical communication skills in Modern Hebrew. Through interactive activities and authentic materials, students build confidence in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while exploring everyday topics such as daily life, family and community, food, leisure, and contemporary Israeli culture. Instruction follows communicative language-teaching best practices aligned with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, preparing students to understand the main ideas of short texts, participate in simple conversations, and present information orally and in writing using connected sentences. Students finish the course ready to use Hebrew meaningfully beyond the classroom.

Intermediate Modern Hebrew 2  | HBR 2221 (20977)

M, T, W, R 12:50 PM – 1:40 PM (Period 6)

Instructor: Iris Cohen | Syllabus coming soon

Ready to communicate more naturally in Hebrew and engage with authentic Israeli media? Hebrew 2221 is an online, proficiency-based course for students at the Intermediate level or those who have completed Hebrew 1131 or an equivalent course. The course expands students’ ability to communicate with greater ease, accuracy, and length in Modern Hebrew through interactive activities and authentic materials. Students explore contemporary Israeli and Jewish life through topics such as life in Tel Aviv, health and society, volunteerism, ecology, music, technology, and language. Instruction follows communicative language-teaching best practices aligned with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, preparing students to understand connected spoken and written texts, participate in sustained conversations, and present information orally and in writing using connected discourse.

Advanced Modern Hebrew 2 | HBR 3411 (25289)

M, T, W, R 1:55 PM –2:45 PM (Period 7)

Instructor: Iris Cohen | Syllabus coming soon

Ready to interpret complex texts and develop your critical thinking skills in Hebrew? Hebrew 3411 is an advanced, proficiency-based course for students performing at the Advanced level. The course develops students’ ability to communicate with linguistic ease, accuracy, and confidence across personal, social, community, and national contexts. Through authentic texts and media, students engage with themes such as time and productivity, sleep and dreams, books and reading culture, moral dilemmas, volunteerism, and identity. Instruction follows communicative language-teaching best practices aligned with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, preparing students to interpret complex texts, participate in extended discussions and debates, and present structured arguments orally and in writing across a range of genres.

Aftermath of the Holocaust | JST 6705 (27530)

T 3:00 PM – 4:55 PM  (Periods 8-9) and R 4:05 PM – 4:55 PM (Period 9)

Instructor: Natalia Aleksiun | Syllabus coming soon

What did it mean to rebuild a life after the Holocaust? This course examines the experiences of Jewish survivors in postwar Europe as they sought to recover their identities, rebuild families and communities, and create new lives in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It explores their social, legal, economic, religious, and cultural worlds in their countries of origin and in Displaced Persons (DP) camps. The course considers what survivors viewed as essential to regaining a sense of normalcy, the roles of homes, institutions, and rituals in rebuilding their lives, and the ways in which the Holocaust reshaped their choices about where and how to live. Through these questions, the course explores the challenges and possibilities of rebuilding Jewish lives after genocide in postwar Europe and beyond.

Israel in French Cinema | JST 6705 (27613)

MWF 12:50 PM – 1:40 PM  (Period 6)

Instructor: Gayle Zachmann | Syllabus coming soon

Moshé Mizrahi was the first Israeli director to win an Oscar. He did it in 1978 with a French film, Madame Rosa. It was one of three films he made in France. Six years earlier Claude Lanzmann’s 1972 documentary opus Pourquoi Israel (Israel, Why) moved from evocations of the Shoah onto a panorama of the fledgling Jewish state. The two films point to already ongoing exchange between Israeli and French cinemas, cinematic cultures, and culture makers.

This seminar-style course explores Franco-Israeli cultural relations and the evolving representations of Israel in French and francophone cinema(s). In the decades following the Holocaust and Israeli independence, along with memory of the Shoah, the cinematic figuration of Israel and its geopolitical and cultural relations with France underwent profound transformations. Organized thematically, the class historically contextualizes and analyzes French and Israeli films and co-productions. Students engage with films, targeted readings, and interviews with filmmakers, critics, archivists to understand the shifting aesthetic, social, political and commercial contexts with which the films engage.
Weekly module themes include : Israel and French Cinemas; National and Minor Cinemas; The Politics and Poetics of Loss and Memory; Visions of Israel; In the Shadow of France; Migrations and Memory; Exiles and Diasporas; Kibbutz Dreams; From the Shoah to Terror; Conflict in the 21st Century; Mossad Spies and their Others; Franco-Judaisms and Universalisms; Trials, Testimony, and the Nation(s).

Class assumes no prior knowledge and may count for FFS/LLC/ENG/JST requirements, the Certificate for European Jewish Studies and the Certificate in Israel Studies. Course and readings are in English.

Latin America, WWII, and the Holocaust | JST 6705 (27531)

T 10:40 AM – 11:30 AM (Period 4) and R 10:40 AM – 12:35 PM (Periods 4-5)

Instructor: Raanan Rein | Syllabus coming soon

This course examines the role of Latin American countries during World War II, from Argentina’s neutrality to Brazil’s participation in the war. Through readings, primary sources, and films, we will explore Jewish immigration to Latin America during the years of the Third Reich, the German communities in the region, and the arrival of both Holocaust survivors and Nazi perpetrators after 1945. We will also examine memorials to the Shoah and Holocaust museums across Latin America, considering how the Holocaust has been remembered and represented in the region.